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OAMennist Franeker vóór en na de kerkelijke coup van de calvinisten
‘Froon-acker’ voor tweedracht – bolwerk van propaganda
- Amsterdam University Press
- Source: Doopsgezinde Bijdragen, Volume 51, Issue 1, Sep 2025, p. 21 - 59
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- 01 Sep 2025
Abstract
Since the middle of the sixteenth century, the Frisian town of Franeker, located not far from the port city of Harlingen, a region significant for early Anabaptism, became a hotspot for hundreds, if not thousands, of Mennonite refugees from Southern Dutch and Flemish regions. Both the Frisians and the refugees with differing regional cultures and habits were subject to persecution by Roman Catholic rule. However, and perhaps surprisingly, Frisian authorities were very reluctant to abide too strictly to the heresy laws. Consequently, the Mennonite residents and migrants there enjoyed a relatively high degree of freedom. As a result, Franeker would become the first Northern center for illegal Mennonite book production. Since 1556, the printer Jan Hendricksz secretly published the early core of Dutch Mennonite literature, including New Testaments, concordances, hymnbooks, martyrologies, and tracts by Menno Simons and Dirck Philipsz. However, life changed dramatically for the Mennonites as soon as the seven Dutch provinces declared independence from Spanish rule and the new republic embraced Calvinism. Although persecution and martyrdom had ceased, daily life suddenly became more complex. Mennonitism became a target of harsh Calvinist propaganda. The establishment of the Dutch Reformed university of Franeker in 1585 worsened the situation. Disputations and disruptions of Mennonite church services became an almost-daily routine for the newly appointed Dutch Reformed theologians and ministers. Their polemics became a lucrative source of revenue for university-affiliated printers and publishers. This is evidenced by the numbers of anti-Mennonite and anti-Doopsgezind tracts and treatises produced by the first university press of Gillis van den Rade between 1586 and 1614. A two-sided picture is revealed by the surviving 1623 auction sale documents outlining the large stock of books owned by Jan Lamrinck, one of Van de Rade’s Calvinist successors who had passed away suddenly. The records reveal that, while Lamrinck had been serving the anti-Mennonite book market in line with the polemic tradition of his predecessors, he also kept a supply of books that catered to the interests of the local Mennonite market. This surprising finding highlights the ambiguous and complex dynamics of Mennonite and Doopsgezind social acceptance in this newly established period of emancipation during the early years of the Dutch Republic.1